Re-Dyeing the Wool, and StarCraft 2

         So I re-dyed the wool last night, as my husband played to the end of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. I tried to follow what I did last time, except I was lazy and skipped the measuring the water temp with the meat thermometer. Then I made a wild guess as to how much Sunshine Orange Rit dye I should use to transform my
              bluish 'Dark Green' --->'Olive Green' ,
             purplish 'Dark Brown'---> warm Dark Brown.
I thought a ration of 2 parts (green, or dark brown) to 1 part (sunshine orange), should do it. So fabric that had been dyed with, 4 oz.(1/2 cup) RIT dark green, I added to 2 oz. (1/4 cup) RIT sunshine orange. And fabric dyed with 1/2 cup RIT dark brown, I added 1/4 cup RIT sunshine orange.
       Then in the pivotal 5 minutes, instead of stirring, I ran to watch a Star Craft cut scene/cinematic.
It was very tense, I wanted to know if Mengsk was going to turn on Raynor after depositing him in Hell/Char. And it was incredibly gripping, Raynor clinging to the hope that she could be exorcised, that there was something left of her, that he fight his way into the mouth of hell to find if there was some soul left.  Anyways. I didn't stir the wool.
      When I came back, the damage was done. The green came out very blotchy indeed, spots of greenish olive drab, and spots of orangey olive drab. More-ever my ratios were way off, I used WAYYY too much orange. I got olive drab instead of olive green. And I got something akin to burnt orange, instead of a warm brown. Also, I learned that when redying wool, as soon as you put it in hot water again, the old color starts to bleed out. Of course. The fibers are opening again. So I lost a lot of green and brown respectively.

This is before....

After, too much orange....

So I learned. Things to do next time

1. Don't be sloppy. Measure your water's temperature
2. STIR STIR STIR (even if it means doing dye batches one after another.)
3. NOT SO MUCH ORANGE.  Next time do 4 Dark Green: 1 Sunshine Orange to get olive green. Or maybe 6 Dark Green: 1 Sunshine Orange. (So 1/2 cup Dark Green, to 1-2 T. sunshine orange). And for the Dark Brown, just add a tad of orange. So 1/2 cup Dark Brown, to 1 T. Sunshine Orange.)
4. Mix all dyes the first time, so there is only one dying process. Otherwise your other colors bleed out into the dye water, and there's no telling what the real ratio absorbed was. And its harder to get the 2 tone blotches that way.
5. Don't try to watch Star Craft 2 while dyeing.

So thats what I learned. I think I will call it a day for my poor wool (its been dyed enough), and make the medieval dress out of it anyway. It isn't quite going to be the dressy medieval garment I had envisioned, prob look much more worn and ranger-y. (Josh brightly pointed out I could think of the blotches as Camo...) And the orangey cotehardie....Sigh. At least Burnt Orange looks good on me. I don't know what 'trim' to pair it with now. The gold looking stuff will look like a mustard 70's couch now. Thinking....

Oh yes, and Star Craft 2 was so intensely symbolic and felt...real. Better then a dress anyways.